Aim To examine how 5-factor personality traits (extraversion,
agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and
openness) and 3 higher-order health-related personality
constructs (negative experience, optimistic control, and
passivity) are related to self-reports of subjective health
outcomes (positive and negative mood, physical symptoms,
and general health concern) and objective health
conditions (chronic illnesses, serious illnesses, and physical
injuries).
Methods The study was carried out on a sample of 822
healthy volunteers (438 women and 384 men, from 18 to
84 years). Data were analyzed by hierarchical regression
analyses for measures of subjective health outcomes used
as criterion variables and binary logistic regression analyses
for objective health conditions used as criterion variables.
Results Three health-related personality constructs significantly
predicted all subjective health measures above and
beyond 5-factor personality dimensions. Out of the 5-factor
personality dimensions, neuroticism was most consistently
related to worse subjective health outcomes, while
out of 3 health-related personality constructs, negative experience
was related to worse and optimistic control to
better subjective health outcomes. When objective health
conditions were taken into account as criterion variables,
both sets of variables were relatively weak predictors.
Only 5-factor personality traits as a group of variables significantly
predicted chronic illnesses (χ2
5 = 15.06; P = 0.012;
Nagelkerke R2 = 0.032). Only neuroticism significantly predicted
the presence of chronic illnesses (odds ratio [OR],
1.091; 95.0% confidence interval [CI], 1.040-1.144), whereas
only optimistic control was related to more frequent physical
injuries caused by accidents (OR, 1.285; 95.0% CI, 1.002-
1.648).
Conclusion Five-factor personality traits and 3 healthrelated
personality constructs may be useful factors in a
multidisciplinary approach to understanding personalityhealth
relationship
